Edwards Proposes Hike

County Executive’s Plan Includes 12.67 Percent Tax Increase

September 27, 2011

MAYVILLE - The county executive is proposing a tax increase of 12.67 percent in his 2012 budget.

The document went online Monday afternoon and will be presented to the legislature Wednesday evening.

In his budget, County Executive Greg Edwards has a tax increase of $1.13 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. If the budget were to pass the legislature with no changes to that number, the county's property tax rate would rise to $10.03 in 2012.

In his 2011 proposal last year, Edwards pitched a tax increase of 74 cents, which would have taken the rate from $8.18 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation to $8.92. When it later passed the legislature, however, the budget included a 72-cent increase, which put county property taxes at their current $8.90 per thousand rate.

The total levy is proposed to increase by $7,603,714 to a total of $67,036,845 in 2012.

The full budget proposal went online early Monday afternoon and can be found at both the county's website as well as with this article at www.post-journal.com.

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Several county departments are slated for small increases and decreases from their 2011 budgets in the county executive's proposal. Several more would see sizable changes under the county executive's plan, while still few others see even larger increases and decreases.

In his proposal, Edwards has the Sheriff's Office taking a 5.4 percent cut - which equals $1,292,755. The details of the reduction are itemized in the county budget, with the bulk of the cuts coming from the county's 911 system, basic academy training, airport security, cuts to navigation and snowmobile patrols as well as the sections of the sheriff's budget titled "Traffic Safety Enforcement" and "Sheriff."

The county's Youth Bureau would likewise be cut $192,678 - which equals a 46.6 percent reduction from the department's 2011 budget.

In terms of increases, the County Office For The Aging is slated to increase 9.8 percent - or $406,729 - from 2011. The Judicial budget has an increase of 20.4 percent in the tentative 2012 budget, which totals an increase of $164,631 from 2011. Probation would see an increase of 8.4 percent - or $154,869 - in the county executive's proposed budget.

For the Social Services Department, the tentative budget has a 7.3 percent increase over 2011 which equals an increase of $6,321,796. Of that number, a total of $3,433,795 is from Medicaid and a total of $2,888,001 is from other areas of Social Services.

Another department facing a decrease in Edwards's 2012 budget is the Planning and Development Department, which has a total 16.5 percent cut proposed - for a total reduction of $462,413. Aside from less occupancy tax, the bulk of that reduction would come from less promotion of industry, less planning and less to the county GIS program.

EMPLOYEE COUNT

In terms of county workers, the tentative 2012 budget has a reduction of 42.5 full-time equivalent employees. The county's full-time equivalency formula includes temporary and seasonal workers.

Additionally, the 42.5 figure does not include changes to county enterprise agencies such as the County Home. Of all the enterprise funds, the tentative 2012 budget has a 1.6 FTE decrease - for a combined cut of 44.1 full-time equivalency positions.

Making up the bulk of the proposed personnel cuts in 2012 are 20 FTE positions from the Sheriff's Office, 10.4 from Public Facilities, 3.5 from Social Services, 3 from Planning and Economic Development, 2 from the Board of Elections and 4.8 from Public Health.

Edwards wrote in his Monday Morning Memo recently that he will wait to go into details about the budget until Wednesday's meeting.

The County Legislature will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday on the third floor of the Gerace Office Building in Mayville.